3. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. vi.
4. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. viii.
5. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. xvii.
6. Eusebius' Eccl. Hist., Bk. viii, ch. i.
7. Eusebius' Eccl. Hist., Bk. viii, ch. ii.
9. See Milner's Introduction to his Church Hist., Vol. i.
10. This is the Rev. H. H. Milman who edited and annotated Gibbon's "Decline and Fall." The above quotation will be found in the editor's preface.
CHANGES IN THE FORM AND SPIRIT OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT--CORRUPTION OF THE POPES.
It is now my purpose to notice those alterations actually made in the form and spirit of the Christian church government. Necessarily my reference to these matters must be brief; sufficient only to demonstrate the fact for which I am contending in these chapters.
I am forced to admit that the description of the church organization in the New Testament is not all one could wish it to be. Only the faintest outline may be traced in those documents which all Christians accept as authority, and as they are fragmentary the description of the church contained in them is necessarily imperfect.
From what is written it appears that the quorum of the Twelve Apostles exercised a universal jurisdiction over the church, and a sort of primacy seems to be accorded to three of their number, Peter, James and John. Before the crucifixion Jesus also called into existence quorums of seventies to whom he gave similar powers to those bestowed upon the Twelve; [1] but for some reason, doubtless the imperfection of the Christian records, we can learn nothing more of them than is set down in the tenth chapter of Luke.
After the departure of the resurrected Messiah from his disciples at Bethany, the apostles, as fast as men were brought to faith and repentance through their preaching, organized in the various cities where they labored branches of the church, over which they appointed elders or bishops to preside; [2] and these evidently were assisted in their duties by deacons. [3] In an enumeration of the church officers given by Paul, we have other officers named besides apostles, prophets, seventies; _viz.,_ evangelists, pastors and teachers. [4]
It is difficult from the New Testament to determine the exact nature and full extent of the duties of these respective officers in the church, or their gradation. But that there was a prescribed duty to each officer, a limit to the authority of each, and a gradation among them, which made a harmonious whole--a complete ecclesiastical government, with all the parts properly adjusted and assigned their respective duties, there can be no question. For Paul likens the church of Christ to the body of a man, which, though it hath many members, yet is it one body; and all the members are necessary; one cannot say to the other, "I have no need of thee." So all these officers in the church, the apostle argues, are necessary; and as the head in the natural body cannot say to the foot, "I have no need of thee," neither in the church can the apostle say to the deacon, "I have no need of thee;" much less can the deacon say to the apostle, "I have no need of thee." [5] "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?" he asks. The implied answer is, No; but, as he elsewhere says, the whole body--i. e., the church--"is fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth." [6]